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taking their own profession of miracle-working - should have been sufficient to
indicate toPharaoh that "Jehovah, He is God" - had his hardness of heart admitted of
such conviction. But asbetween Moses' and Aaron's first and second interview with
Pharaoh important events occurred, itmay be well briefly to record them again in their
order.
After the first interview, in which Moses and Aaron had simply delivered the Divine
command,Pharaoh, who had pleaded ignorance of Jehovah (that is, of His Deity and
claims), professed toregard the demand of Moses as a mere pretense to procure a
series of holidays for the people. Theywere "vain words" (5:9) "to let the people from
their works" (ver. 4). As "the people of the land" -that is, the Israelites, the laboring
class - were "many," to "make them rest from their burdens" (ver.5) would inflict great
damage upon the king. To prevent their having either time or inclination to listento
such suggestions, the king ordered that, while the old amount of work should continue
to beexacted, the straw needful for making the sun-dried bricks (such as we find on
the monuments ofEgypt) should no longer be supplied. The time requisite for
gathering "stubble instead of straw"prevented, of course, their fulfilling their "daily
tasks."
The punishment then fell upon the Israelitish "officers," or rather "scribes," whom the
Egyptian"taskmasters" had set over the work and held responsible for it. An appeal to
Pharaoh onlyexplained the cause of his increased severity, and the "officers" of a
people which but lately hadacknowledged that God had visited them, not seeing that
visitation, but rather seemingly theopposite, ventured in their unbelief to appeal to
Jehovah against Moses and Aaron! So rapidly dothe results of a faith which cometh
only by the hearing of the ear give way before discouragements.
As for Moses, the hour of his severest trial had now come. With the words of Israel's
complaint hewent straight to the Lord, yet, as St. Augustine remarks, not in the
language of contumacy or ofanger, but of inquiry and prayer. To his question, "Lord,
wherefore hast Thou so evil entreated thispeople?" (5:22) - as so often to our inquiries
into God's "Wherefore" -no reply of any kind wasmade. "What I do thou knowest not
now, but thou shalt know hereafter." To us, indeed, the "needbe" of making the yoke
of Egypt as galling as possible seems now evident, as we remember how theheart of
the people clung to the flesh-pots of Egypt, even after they had tasted the heavenly
manna;(Numbers 11) and the yet higher "need be for it," since the lower Israel's
condition and the moretyrannical Pharaoh's oppression, the more glorious the triumph
of Jehovah, and the more completethe manifestation of His enemy's impotence. But in
Moses it only raised once more, at this season ofdepression, the question of his fitness
for the work which he had undertaken. For when Satan cannototherwise oppose, he
calls forth in us unbelieving doubts as to our aptitude or call for a work. Thedirection
which Moses now received from God applies, in principle, to all similar cases. It
(^)